Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.

De Blob was one of those Wii games that seemed intriguing, but I never did get around to playing it.  It was fairly well received, especially for a third party game.  A sequel has been announced, called De Blob: The Underground, and this time around, there's co-op!  That alone would put this game firmly in the casual co-op gamer's wish list, save one small fact.

Next week, the shiny new DLC for Red Dead Redemption hits: June 22nd to be exact.  Though this DLC pack, entitled "Outlaws to the End", is certainly wanted, you won't need to pay much of a bounty, as it will be free!  We've found some details on four of the six new missions, all of which are co-op!

Last year Trine's beautiful graphics and unique co-op caught our attention. After E3 2010 announcements finished up, the new sequel Trine 2 was announced with a teaser trailer. The physics based platforming action will be fully intact for the new downloadable title, so far no official platform is offered yet.

When you're trying to survive and dispatching horrible nightmarish creatures, the last thing you want to rely on is your own personal reflexes and range of movement. Yet the Nintendo Wii horror shooter Dead Space: Extraction proved that waggle immersion can make for a good entry in the genre.

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op E3 Edition where I link up all I can from sister site Colony of Gamers and other trusted locations about single-player games that have little to nothing in relation to co-op gaming.

We got an early look at The First Templar at E3 2010 this year, the two player co-op game is a bit of a rarity.  It's a mix of action with some light RPG elements that make it like a mix of Dante's Inferno and Assassin's Creed.  The game is even semi-historically accurate.

At PAX East, Nick and Kat had the opportunity to check out Two Worlds II, the sequel to the good-in-concept but poor in execution third-person fantasy RPG Two Worlds.  Based on the version of the game that was shown there, Nick and Kat left impressed by a few features of this new entry, but also had a lot of reservations.  Earlier this week, I got some hands-on time with the game… and came away with many of the same reservations.

Although it wasn't received very well critically, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was one of my favorite beat-em-up RPGs from the last generation. Despite being pared down, its two-player co-op was still worth playing for hours. Snowblind Studios - responsible for Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - are bringing The Lord of the Rings: War in the North to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in 2011, and they're bringing three-player co-op with it.

Lightgun shooters are having a bit of a renaissance due to the pointer capabilties of the Wii controller.  The Playstation Move controller now brings lightgun shooters to your living room in glorious high-def.  One of the first comes from the venerable Time Crisis franchise.  Time Crisis: Razing Storm  is the latest iteration of the series in arcades, and is coming to the Playstation 3 this fall. 

Epic has recently announced a new Horde style mode for Gears of War 3 called Beast Mode.  While it may appear like an inverse of Horde mode on the surface, it's actually an incredibly deep cooperative experience that not only requires team work and communication - but some careful planning and strategy. 

Firefight was a surprise hit for a lot of gamers when the four player co-op mode was released with Halo 3: ODST last year. It took all the fun moments of Halo and wrapped them into a repeating playlist of action for players to experience with their friends while trying to accomplish an overall goal.  But the original Firefight had some major faults, most notably the lack of any match making.  Halo Reach is bringing us Firefight 2.0 - and for the most part is has stepped the mode up in a big way.